Hillary Clinton easily won Vermont, regarded as one of the most progressive states in the country, with 56.7% of the vote,[1] although her margin was reduced by 8.34 percentage points from outgoing
PresidentBarack Obama in
2012.[2] Donald Trump received 29.3% of the vote and won only
Essex County–the most rural and sparsely populated county in the state. He was the first Republican presidential candidate to win a county in Vermont since
George W. Bush in
2004.
Bernie Sanders received 5.7% of the vote.

With a combination of Sanders' and other write-in votes totaling to 7.04%, Vermont was the strongest state in the 2016 election for write-in candidates.[5]

With 29.26% of the vote, Trump's performance is the worst showing for a Republican in Vermont, setting a record low for the party since
George H. W. Bush lost the state in
1992 with 30.4% of the vote. Vermont was once a liberal Republican stronghold, having voted Republican in every election from
1856 to
1988 with the exception of
1964. Since 1992, the Democratic Party has carried the state in every election, most often by landslide margins. No Republican has received over 40% of the vote in Vermont since
George W. Bush in
2000. As a measure of how Republican Vermont once was at the presidential level, Trump is only the second Republican to win the White House without winning Vermont. George W. Bush failed to carry Vermont in either of his bids, losing both times by double digits.

Despite Democratic dominance at the federal level, Vermont has continued to elect liberal Republican governors, such as the election of
Phil Scott on
the same day.